info on arrow

Take a look at the wonderful posts from this group:
Arrow One Bad Experiance

Also take a look at the government rating for Arrow:
ai.fmcsa.dot.gov safestat CarrierOverview.asp?DOT=34180

Swift has a better safety rating than Arrow. Swift also has a flatbed division. If I were to pick between the two Swift would be my choice based on safety ratings. If I had other choices I'd keep looking - it's hard if you're new and you don't have 1.5-2 years for verifiable OTR experience. You'll have to "pay your dues" before the next set of opportunities are available.

I would look for a company that is based or has terminals, freight lanes and customers near your home. That makes it easier to get in and out of home time, leave for a better job, and take advantage of opportunities.

If you're not sure what flavor of trucking you'd like you may try some out. Flatbed, van, reefer, bulk, tanker, specialized, etc. all have their own culture/world and pros and cons. You have to find the type of trucking that you like then you have to find the company that is the best fit for you.

Nothing is constant in this world but change.

 

No you're just a meat popsickle - you're just another piece of equipment - you're just there to take it up the tail pipe from Arrow. Arrow is bad news.
If you want a really bad experience just starting off this is a good place to go.

If you want to make points and progress at arrow you'll have to be a suck ### and do anything they want - sit for days and not complain, take permitted loads without permits, take unsafe loads from other drivers and run with it, not complain about bad equipment, run illegal, etc.

The government safestat score says it all - the drivers are rated at 97.4 -
0 being the best and 100 the worst. Arrow is a company that might have been good 5 years ago but it has degenerated to a unsafe place to work with poor performance, lost customers, a very bad reputation, crappy equipment, etc.

It doesn't matter if you do a perfect job - in fact you're a liability because you stand out from the "crowd" and it makes everybody else look bad.

Run as fast as you can to find something else.

 

well if you can run it they will give it to you... when ask to go home we get to go home and its never late guess he pissed his DM off..... well good luck to your husband I hope he gets home soon if he still works for Arrow..But I have one question to you... so no one needs a second chance in life for a mistake they made when they where younger?? Guess you made no mistakes in your life at all... thats all I have to say about that HAVE A GOOD ONE

 

Speaking from experience I'd take Watkins and Shepard or Davis - STAY AWAY from Arrow. I'd stay away from Watkins and Shepard flatbed and run their van division - the flatbed wants you out 3-6 months at a time. The van division is much more flexible.

 

After the dad (owner of Arrow) died a few years back the company has been run/ruined by mom and the son. It's a real mess right now. Tom Witt from SMX was brought in a few months ago as the new president to clean it up. - Good Luck Tom.

 

What are you an air head? You're lucky that Arrow caught the "mistake" and not the DOT - In California log book violations start at $500 for minor errors. In your case they would have called it falsification and you would see a $1500 - $2000 ticket.

Yes your lucky you didn't get fired. I watched 15 drivers get fired in two days when I was waiting for maintenance of my truck in April for the very same violations. Some were running 80hrs a week.

Understand the DOT audits these companies and looks for these violations because they know (especially with Arrow) that "hand waving" and illegal practices are going on and encouraged in many cases.

Arrow pretend to care as long as your objectives are the same and you have your face attached to their rears. ARROW doesn't care about their drivers!

You must be a lease purchase operator or Owner operator if you're adding that kind of equipment to your truck. You'd be handle by a different set of people than the company drivers.

I remember when I started in January of 2007 while waiting for my first load in fontana I watched 15 lease operators, 1 owner operator, and 5 company drivers come into the yard and turn in their trucks over the weekend. The owner/op turned in his equipment (tarps, straps, etc.) and put his landstar stickers on.

During the first three months of the year I kept being told freight was slow because it was winter. It picked up in the spring a little. I heard in May freight was slow because of the forest fires out west - the only major fire at the time was in N. FL/S. GA and Catalina IS, CA. That's funny most all the other flatbed companies had freight, but go by truck stops and terminals and you see empty arrow trucks.

 

Gee hear's a perfect example of how Arrow encourages illegal running - If you used all 70 of your allocated DOT hours and you ran an average of 60 mph you would legally be able to cover ONLY 4200 miles. This doesn't count the time you have to take for fuel stops, loading and unloading, even drop and hook, required equipment checks, etc. Ether he falsified his logs or he told the truth and was in gross violation of the 70 hr rule.

That's okay many Arrow drivers do this - it perfectly acceptable to the company because its all about money - what can they get away with.

You don't want a DM that encourages this - although I don't know many that wouldn't since they get paid for every mile you run in addition to their wage.

Gee let's see - $1100 for 4800 miles that works out to 23 cents per mile - is that what you signed up for? It should be at least 32 cents per mile. I'm assuming that the $1100 was net pay after taxes, any equipment deductions, advances, etc. Did Arrow tell you that you're routed with hub miles but paid with the Household Movers Guide miles - this shorts you about 15-20% of pay for each load. Go ahead corner your DM and ask them if you can get them to answer truthfully. Better yet keep a record of your actual miles driven and compare them to the miles paid on the check stub.

If your husband gets caught by the DOT driving these kinds of miles your going to need a couple of these paychecks to cover the fine.

 

Theres more than one rolling meth lab in the Arrow Parking lot at Tulsa. Were you referring to the one that the trainer and student were busted in after an accident or the one that was used for the Albuquerque rampage about February of 2007 - the driver high on meth got pissed because he didn't have a load after days of sitting - he unhooked his trailer and ran through the city smashing into 25+ cars, a number of buildings, and other numerous objects. He didn't manage to kill or injury anybody - all can be viewed from the news sources. When they finally got the truck stopped and the driver out of the truck the lab was obvious.

Don't forget about the lease operator with a new kenworth that ran over and killed a man in the parking lot of an Ohio Wal-Mart about two months ago. The man was upset because the Arrow driver had taken soo many spaces with his truck and told him to move it. After a heated argument the Arrow driver put the truck in gear and ran the man down.

Don't forget how the Laredo, TX terminal manager and employees were busted last year for drug traffic from Mexico using Arrow trucks and the Laredo Arrow terminal.

 

formerarrowdriver how long did you drive for arrow? sounds like they really ticked you off.

 

Like "Former" said... you are driving for $.23 a mile??? That's worse than any newbie pay...

Second chances are fine, but Arrow promotes themselves as a premier company with professional drivers. Yet *most* the drivers they hire are drug dealers, meth heads, convicts of all kinds, etc. People that have had too many second chances. What kind of premier company hires the lowest of the low? Hmmm maybe a company that *IS* one of the lowest of the low...Arrow.

I never once said that I have never made a mistake. Believe me, I have. The biggest one I ever made though was driving for Arrow.